Motorola Atrix ad banned, Samsung Galaxy S2 deemed more powerful

Motorola has been barred from running an advert for the Atrix smartphone, after claims it was the world’s brawniest handset were refuted by the UK’s advertising watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) banned the TV spot after a complaint from Samsung ,which cited the fact that its processor was more powerful than the Atrix’s chipset as evidence that Moto’s handset had no right to its claim.

Motorola contested Samsung’s assertion on the grounds that the combination of its other features, such as its long-life battery and 1GB of RAM combined with a dual core processor that offers just 20 per cent power than the S2’s, added up to a more powerful device.

However, this was rejected by the ASA on the grounds that consumers would have understood that the claim of being the “most powerful” related to smartphones’ processors alone.

The ASA stated: "We considered most viewers would understand the claim 'the world's most powerful smartphone', in context to a smartphone, to mean that the product had, among other features, a faster processor than any other smartphone.

“Because the Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 had a faster processor than the ATRIX, we considered the claim "The world's most powerful smartphone" had not been substantiated by comparative evidence and concluded that it was misleading.”

Under the terms of the ASA’s ruling, Motorola is banned from running the advert again.

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